Chapter 1: The Spark

Han Yu never imagined that after he cleared "Cyberpunk 2077" once again, a game Easter egg he'd never heard of and never seen before would suddenly pop up on the screen before him.

He was controlling V as he once more hacked through Arasaka’s subterranean divine carriage server, blasting Adam Smasher’s corpse to bits with a shotgun. Then, as the king of the city, he gazed down upon Night City from the hovering car. Suddenly, a line of text appeared on the screen.

[Are you satisfied with the ending of this story, with everything that has happened in this cyber world?]

[1—I'm satisfied, after all... life is always filled with regrets.]

[2—I'm not satisfied. If everything is destined to be a tragedy, why would I embark on this journey?]

Satisfied?

Jack's twin pistols are gathering dust in his game room’s closet, David, Rebecca, and the others are reduced to cold lines of text on their gravestones, and V, the protagonist, still only has a few months to live...

How could he possibly be satisfied?

Driven by all these dissatisfactions, Han Yu unhesitatingly chose the second option.

"But it seems no one has triggered this Easter egg before? Maybe I'll reload a save and try again... record it and post it online to see what happens."

Han Yu sat up, his interest piqued as he stared at the screen, watching the sudden new dialog box.

[Then, are you willing to try again, to make up for everything, to see if you can truly save a city... or perhaps, burn everything to ashes? Even if this time, the one you might burn is yourself?

Please think carefully before answering. Once you make your choice, there is no going back!

Player, make your choice.]

[1—Forget it. V is V, I am me, no matter how powerful I am in the game, it's just an illusion.]

[2—From this moment on, ignite my little spark!]

Was there even a need to ask? He’d always pick the second one!

Han Yu made his selection without hesitation, but suddenly sensed something off.

This choice didn’t seem quite like the usual in-game options; the mysterious dialog box wasn’t addressing the V he controlled, but rather... seemed to be talking to the player outside the game screen.

But...

Wasn’t that all the more interesting?

Han Yu took a sip of iced cola, excitement bubbling within him as he eagerly read the next lines.

[Now, choose your beginning. Out of goodwill, I have offered you similar options.]

[Option 1—A wanderer from the Buckle family, a foolish hacker standing at the edge of the Black Wall out of curiosity.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.]

[Option 2—A hacker from Arasaka Corporation’s hacker training facility, ordered to dig up Old Net data within the Black Wall as part of your work.

A foolish gravedigger.]

[Option 3—A street kid from the Voodoo Boys, diving deep into the cyber world with friends, ignorantly summoning demons.

A pitiful, nameless pawn.]

Han Yu scanned the options and quickly formed several thoughts.

All three choices involved hackers, cyberspace, the Black Wall, and AI.

"Could it be, the thing I'm talking to is an active AI?"

Han Yu considered this a reasonable guess, since, according to the game’s lore, the player’s own identity was likely that of a rogue AI, and V was merely a puppet to be manipulated.

As for the identity choices, Han Yu found it easy to decide.

The third option, the Voodoo Boys street kid, was immediately eliminated—when playing, what disgusted him most were the Scavengers and then the Voodoo Boys.

Scavengers are a street gang who profit by looting corpses, kidnapping, and murdering others to harvest cyberware for trafficking.

The Voodoo Boys, on the other hand, are extreme xenophobes and traitors to humanity. Composed mainly of Haitian immigrants, they operate mainly in cyberspace, wield powerful hacking skills, and maintain their own massive server called "Poseidon."

They are not only fiercely exclusionary but also collaborators, aiming to breach the Black Wall—the firewall preventing AI invasion of the real world. They hope to unleash the AI, let it dominate the world, and then serve as its loyal lapdogs in the new AI-led order.

Hardly human at all.

Option two, the Arasaka background, seemed familiar.

In the anime "Edgerunners," the heroine Lucy escaped from there. The so-called hacker training facility was actually a human mining camp. Arasaka gathered talented children, forcing them to dig up Old Net data day and night in cyberspace.

Starting from here... honestly, Han Yu found it rather interesting.

As for option one.

The Buckle family was the background for the wanderer start in the game, with V fleeing from this clan and wandering to Night City. The background didn’t seem to have any major pitfalls, and maybe he could even link up with V...

Wait, the dialog box hadn’t specified which year he’d be sent to.

"Hope I don’t get thrown into an even more distant future, and end up fighting the Fifth Corporate War?"

Yet, before Han Yu could make a choice, the options on the screen suddenly began to flicker. Before he could react, the Buckle origin—option one—vanished entirely!

Now Han Yu didn’t dare to wait any longer. He immediately picked option two—he’d rather be a mining card for Arasaka than start as a repulsive Voodoo Boys member.

Muttering to himself, Han Yu pressed the second option, his heart both anxious and excited.

The computer screen before him suddenly switched to the main menu, then the image began rapidly flickering.

At first, the flickering resembled the "neural overclock" effect in the game, just red and blue edges pulsing, but soon the whole screen dissolved into a mosaic.

As black and red lights flashed, Han Yu’s vision went black. In the next instant, hearing, sight, and touch all vanished, leaving only a dead silence in the darkness.

Vaguely, he glimpsed a line of text flash past.

[Infiltrating...]

.....

[Infiltration complete.]

As the text faded, Han Yu jerked his eyes open.

No, it wasn’t just Han Yu.

A chaotic flood of memories belonging to a boy named Mercer flickered through his mind, pain searing through his skull as he instinctively reached for the area behind his ear.

Even such a simple movement was now excruciatingly difficult, as if his whole body were being torn apart and steamed alive!

"I... damn!"

With a trembling, almost instinctive curse, Han Yu’s shaking hand finally grasped the data cable behind his ear and yanked it out.

Instantly, a cacophony erupted in his ears. The room’s lights flickered and then went out entirely. The glowing computer screen and the nearby server both exploded with a bang, spewing acrid black smoke and sparks.

In the darkness, only a few LED lights glowed red. Han Yu, in a panic, rolled over and tumbled straight off the hacker chair.

"Cough! Cough cough! Damn..."

He struggled on the floor, trying to push himself up, as a shrill warning blared in his ears.

"Beep! Beep! Alert! Alert! Unknown data surge detected! Server overload!"

"Suspected rogue AI attack. Protection mode activated!"

The room was suddenly bathed in harsh red light. Han Yu turned his head in confusion, seeing a row of hacker chairs surrounded by thick data cables.

At that moment, seven children, looking to be between twelve and sixteen, were removing their hacker gear from their heads.

Next to him, in the adjacent hacker chair, another boy was slumped, smoke rising from his head, blood streaming from his nose, mouth, and even ears—dead in his seat.

[Welcome to the world of Cyberpunk, my friend.]

A voice with no emotion, sounding like mechanical synthesis, suddenly echoed in his ear.

What the hell was this?!

The sudden voice in his mind made his skin crawl.

Han Yu’s head was still foggy, but now, the group of children who had removed their hacking devices all turned to look at him.

"What’s wrong with Mercer?"

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Damn, the server’s smoking!"

"Tony? Tony!"

"...Tony’s dead."

[System reboot complete.]

[Biological monitoring back online.]

[Arasaka Mk.3 Neural Interface Pod reconnected.]

[Arasaka Type 3 RAM upgrade reloaded.]

[Arasaka...]

Han Yu—or rather, Mercer—felt a sharp pain in his head, as if someone were drilling into his brain with an electric tool—an utterly nauseating sensation, making thought almost impossible.

Amid the noise, Mercer instinctively turned his head to see a girl with twin ponytails, her eyes red and fixed on him.

As the ponytailed girl hesitated to speak, another pale hand reached out, grasping his wrist and trying to help him up.

"Hey, Mercer, are you okay?"

Mercer turned and saw a pretty girl with iridescent short hair, her face filled with worry.

Why did she look so familiar...

Ah!

Lucy!

Mercer’s eyes widened as he instantly recognized the girl before him—this beautiful face and iconic rainbow hair belonged to Lucy, the heroine from the anime "Edgerunners"!

"Lucy!? I’m... okay..."

He replied almost instinctively, but then a wave of vertigo and nausea sent him sprawling to the floor again, and this time, he slipped into unconsciousness.

Faintly, he heard several cold, inhuman voices.

[Codename: FF:06:B5 operation successful.]

[Can this truly change everything?]

[I’m not sure.]

[But it’s the best option.]

[Then load the program.]

[Understood.]

[Begin operation.]

[Operation codename: Ragnarök.]

.....

[From this moment on, ignite this little spark, my friend.]

The voices faded, leaving only pitch-black silence.